Portuguese Soccer Great Eusebio Is Dead at 71

Eusebio, left, playing for Benifica against AC Milan in a European Cup game in 1963.

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published: January 5, 2014 Comment

LISBON, Portugal — Eusebio, the Portuguese soccer star who was born into poverty in Africa but became an international sporting icon and was voted one of the 10 best players of all time, has died at 71, his longtime club Benfica said.

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Eusebio arriving in London with the Portuguese national team for the 1966 World Cup.

He died Sunday, the club announced on its website, without providing details.

Eusebio died at home of heart failure, his biographer, Jose Malheiro, said. “His health was very poor,” Malheiro told reporters. Eusebio was admitted to hospital several times over the last year for the treatment of heart and respiratory problems.

Officials at Benfica and at the Portuguese Football Federation, where Eusebio was an ambassador, could not immediately be reached.

Eusebio’s coffin was to be taken to Benfica’s Stadium of Light later Sunday, public broadcaster Radiotelevisao Portuguesa reported.

Cristiano Ronaldo, the captain of Portugal who plays for Real Madrid, commented on his Facebook page, “Always eternal Eusebio, rest in peace.” The former captain Luis Figo, the 2001 FIFA world player of the year, tweeted: “The king!! Great loss for us all! The greatest!!”

Eusebio da Silva Ferreira became affectionately known as the Black Panther for his athletic prowess and clinical finishing, which made him one of the world’s top scorers during his heyday in the 1960s for Benfica and the Portuguese national team.

Perhaps his biggest accomplishment was to lead Portugal to a third-place finish at the 1966 World Cup, but his agility and speed made him one of Europe’s most dangerous forwards for most of a career that lasted two decades.

He was awarded the Ballon d’Or in 1965 as Europe’s player of the year and twice won the Golden Boot — in 1968 and ’73 — for being the top scorer in Europe. According to football’s world governing body, FIFA, he scored 679 goals in 678 official games.

None are more famous than those he netted against North Korea in the quarterfinals of the 1966 World Cup. With Portugal trailing by 3-0, Eusebio inspired his team’s turnaround with four goals and an eventual 5-3 victory.

While Portugal went on to lose to host and eventual champion England in the semifinals, Eusebio became even more popular at home when he wept openly as he left the field after the defeat.

He finished as the tournament’s top scorer with nine goals. In 1998, a panel of 100 experts gathered by FIFA named him in its International Football Hall of Fame as one of the sport’s top 10 all-time greats.

“Look, there are only two black people on the list: me and Pele,” Eusebio commented on the honor, referring to the Brazilian great who was a friend. “I regard that as a great responsibility because I am representing Africa and Portugal, my second homeland.”

Eusebio was born in Maputo, the Mozambican capital, during the World War II when the southeast African country was still a Portuguese colony. He came from a poor family but sparkled for his local team and was lured by Benfica to Portugal when he was 18.

Known for his unpretentious and easy manner as well as his courage and ball skills, his popularity in Portugal was such that in 1964, when Italian clubs offered to buy Eusebio for sums that were astronomical for the time, the country’s then-dictator, Antonio Salazar, decreed that the player was a “national treasure” — meaning that he could not be sold abroad.

“A football genius and example of humility, an outstanding athlete and generous man, Eusebio was for all sports fans and for all Portuguese an example of professionalism, determination and devotion to the colors of the national jersey and of Benfica,” Portuguese Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho said in a statement.

In a playing career unparalleled in Portugal, Eusebio was a cornerstone of the Benfica team that won back-to-back European titles in the early 1960s.

In an epic European Cup final against Real Madrid in 1962, when a first-half hat trick by Ferenc Puskas looked as if it would be enough to secure the trophy for the Spanish club, Eusebio scored the last two goals as the Lisbon team came back to win, 5-3, and clinch Benfica’s second straight continental title.